Everett Ramos is a resident surgeon at Mercy West Hospital in Seattle, Washington. She's on the uphill climb to becoming one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the world, studying alongside her best friends and hoping one day to make a difference...
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HER HANDS wrap around the chipping turquoise paint of the coffee mug, sending the warmth careening through her veins and right into her heart, as if the caffeine can take over her bloodstream and keep her awake for the next twenty-four hours. She takes a sip, her legs swinging from the barstool set up at the kitchen island, letting the sugary aromas of a usually bitter drink wash over her face. She looks down into the swirling, dark brown hues of the mug and sees his eyes staring back at her, just the perfect amount of creamer, just the right amount of sugar. She can't help but smile as she takes another sip, thinking about his warm arms around her body this morning, his sleepy mumbles as she crawled out of his hold and into the shower.
"A packet?" Cristina grumbles, holding up the blue-lined packet Meredith had brought over this morning to show off to the two other surgeons currently trying to buy the hospital. "We're gonna convince these people to give us one-hundred-and-seventy-five million dollars with a packet?"
"It's a nice packet." Everett snorts into her coffee. She should be dressed for work and on the way out of the door, ready to dive right into fixing up broken bones and spending hours in an operating room getting someone back on their feet. Instead, she's waiting for the coffee to settle into her veins so they can convince some millionaire to give them money.
Her nerves feel like the static of an old television screen.
"Mer, Owen stopped calling. If this doesn't work, he'll never speak to me again."
"Once we buy the hospital, the sneaking around stops." Cristina looks up to argue, but Meredith is quick to stop her. "And once Owen finds out what we did, he's gonna be the happiest of all."
"Well." Everett sips on her coffee again, letting the liquid burn the tip of her tongue. "At least you don't live with the man you're lying to." Suddenly, there are the noticeable sounds of creaking wood and Alex walks into the kitchen, his eyebrows raising at the sight of the three women sitting around his kitchen table, obviously stopping their conversation at the sight of him.
Everett wishes, more than anything, that she could just come out and say it, but with the look Meredith sends her she knows that she can't. She can't stand up and pour her heart out to the man she loves, because she won't be able to hold her tongue, and he'll try to get involved and he's not allowed to be involved. But, seeing the hurt in his eyes, seeing the coffee-coloured hue of his eyes darken as the creamer starts to fade and he's nothing but freshly ground coffee beans waiting to be melted with hot water, she wishes she could just say something.
